Aerosols can be used in a wide variety of applications. For example, it is known to use aerosols for medical applications including the treatment of respiratory ailments, such as by delivering drugs via aerosol sprays including finely divided particles of liquids and/or solids, for example, powders, medicaments, etc., which are inhaled into a patient's lungs. Aerosols can also be used in other applications, such as introducing scents into rooms, distributing insecticides, injecting fuels into engines of vehicles, and delivering paints, lubricants and other substances.
Aerosol generators and methods of producing aerosols with the aerosol generators are disclosed, for example, in commonly-owned U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,743,251, 6,234,167 and 6,491,233, each of which is hereby incorporated by reference in its entirety.
For many applications, the effectiveness of aerosol generators can, at least in part, be related to the particle size distribution of the aerosols that they produce. Aerosol particle size distribution can affect where aerosol particles are deposited, as well as how well the particles are utilized once they are deposited. For example, in the treatment of medical ailments, it may be desirable to deposit a fluid formulation within a patient's lungs using an aerosol. In such cases, the aerosol particle size distribution can affect whether significant quantities of the formulation are deposited in the patient's throat or mouth instead of in the patient's lungs where the formulation would be more effective. Additionally, less favorable particle size distributions may take longer for the formulation to be absorbed once deposited.
In some applications, aerosol generators may be designed to deliver formulations that can, for example, be made up of excipients such as water, ethanol and mixtures of both that are combined with various medicaments. Some aerosol generators operate by passing the formulations through a tube to produce an aerosol. Clogging in such formulation delivery tubes can affect the aerosol generators' ability to accurately and repeatedly meter out appropriate quantities of the formulations, to generate an aerosol having a desired particle size distribution and can otherwise hamper the effectiveness of the generator. Thus, a need exists in the art to address deficiencies in known aerosol generators.